The New York Stock Exchange in the Crisis of 1914 by Henry George Stebbins Noble (portable ebook reader .txt) 📕

supposed impossibility was performed by the joint and determined

action of the financial community. On the other hand, and as a

counterpart to this valuable experience, it must never be lost sight

of that the extraordinary war measures of 1914 may be a danger to the

future if they are misinterpreted. There is a possibility (even a

probability) that when ordinary crises arise in times to come, people

who find themselves financially embarrassed will bring enormous

pressure upon the authorities of the Exchange to renew the drastic

expedients of the famous thirty-first of July. It is to be sincerely

hoped that there will always be firmness enough in the Governing

Committee to resist this pressure. The great world war coming, as it

did, without warning was a rare and epoch-making event that warranted

unheard of action and to indulge in such action for any lesser cause

would be utterly disastrous.

The Committee of Five seems to have been brought into existence under

a lucky star. That five men called together so suddenly in such an

emergency should have worked with absolute harmony for so long a time

is quite remarkable. Their unanimity was never troubled but once. On

one of the first few days of their career a rather positive and

aggressive member, arguing with a colleague, said "you must remember

that you are only one of this Committee." The Committeeman thus

addressed responded with calm determination "and you must not forget

that you are not the other four." This encounter excited much

amusement among the remaining members and was the one and only

occasion where anything resembling a serious difference appeared.

In addition to being blessed with harmony they were very fortunate in

having passed rulings for so long a time without giving forth anything

that had to be recalled. In view of the complexity of the conditions,

fortune must have aided in this as well as judgment. They were, of

course, treated to much wisdom (after the event) by their critics.

They were told that they might have opened the Exchange sooner after

the actual opening had proved a success, and they were informed in

the editorial columns of a prominent journal that their fear of

foreign liquidation had been an "obsession" which lacked

justification. These critics never were heard from while the event was

in doubt, and consequently the Committee did not profit much by their

learned sayings.

It can be stated with confidence that the intelligent resourcefulness

of the Stock Exchange, in conjunction with the splendid public

spirited work of the New York banks and the press, warded off a

calamity the possible magnitude of which it would be difficult to

measure. The success of this undertaking should be a source of pride

and emulation to those future generations of brokers who will have to

solve the problems of the great financial market when in the words of

Tyndall, "you and I, like streaks of morning cloud, shall have melted

into the infinite azure of the past."

THE END

Publication Date: 04-30-2015

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